DIBELS: An Overview Kelli Anderson Early Intervention Specialist - ECC Dr. David Lillenstein, NCSP Director of Psychological Services

Literacy Skills Dynamic Indicators Basic Early DIBELS stands for: Of dibels.uoregon.edu

DIBELS Facts: 6th edition – Grades K-6 Editors: Roland H. Good II Ruth A. Kaminski Outcomes-Driven Model Research based Provides longitudinal data Assists with grouping students by skill in a balanced literacy classroom Prevention vs. remediation dibels.uoregon.edu

Key highlights of DIBELS: Material for Kindergarten to 6th grade Quick, easy to administer, and to score Data system for a small fee ($1.00/student/yr) Grades K-3 ---- Year 2 Grades 4-5 ---- Year 1 dibels.uoregon.edu

BIG IDEAS of literacy skills: Phonological awareness Alphabetic principle or Phonics Accuracy and fluency with connected text Vocabulary Comprehension abcdefg dibels.uoregon.edu

DIBELS and the BIG IDEAS: Phonological Awareness: Initial Sounds Fluency Phonemic Segmentation Fluency Alphabetic Principle: Nonsense Word Fluency Accuracy and Fluency with connected text: Oral Reading Fluency dibels.uoregon.edu

Phonological Awareness: The ability to hear and manipulate the sound structure of language NOT the same as phonics Examples of phonological awareness: Rhyming, syllable splitting, phoneme blending, phoneme segmentation, phoneme deletion, and phoneme manipulation Example of phoneme segmentation: Able to determine that the word “mop” is made up of the sounds … dibels.uoregon.edu

Alphabetic Principle or Phonics: Letter-sound correspondence Is NOT knowing letter names in the alphabet The ability to blend letters into words dibels.uoregon.edu

Oral Reading Fluency: Ability to read text accurately and quickly Effortless or to the level of automaticity Automaticity = fast, effortless word recognition Automaticity is necessary but not sufficient for fluency Fluent readers read with automaticity dibels.uoregon.edu

Fluency Continued… Reading fluently allows students to comprehend what they have read Fluency is developed through modeling and repeated oral reading Significant relationship with reading comprehension e.g. - .91 correlation between WCPM and Stanford Achievement Reading Comprehension ORF is more closely related to Comprehension than to word recognition of words drawn from a passage (Fuchs, Fuchs, & Maxwell, 1988) dibels.uoregon.edu

Less fluent readers… must focus attention on decoding individual words must allocate cognitive resources to word recognition have little attention left for comprehending text are unable to focus on comprehension!!! dibels.uoregon.edu

Fluent readers… focus attention on making connections with text focus attention on connecting text with prior knowledge are able to read with expression are able to recognize words and comprehend at the same time are able to focus on comprehension!!! dibels.uoregon.edu

Why we assess fluency? Useful in evaluating instruction Useful in setting instructional goals Provides means for monitoring Response to Intervention (RTI) / progress monitoring Can be motivating to students / teachers / parents Efficient, reliable, and objective Correlates with comprehension dibels.uoregon.edu

Administration Schedule   Administration Schedule     DIBELS Oral Reading Fluency DIBELS Nonsense Word Fluency DIBELS Phoneme Segment Fluency DIBELS Letter Naming Fluency DIBELS Initial Sound Fluency Beg Mid End Preschool Kindergarten First Grade Second Grade Third - Sixth Grade dibels.uoregon.edu

The importance… Strong probability between… A student remaining a poor reader at the end of 4th grade if the student was a poor reader at the end of 1st grade. A student remaining an average reader at the end of 4th grade if the student was an average reader at the end of 1st grade. From Good & Kaminski 2001 (cited Juel, 1988) dibels.uoregon.edu

Completing DIBELS Benchmark Assessments All Students = 3 minutes/child - 3x/year (~20 mins/class) Recommended team assessment approach Team can include the following members: School psychologist, classroom teacher, special education teacher, student teacher, counselor, principal, IST, interns, remedial reading teacher, speech therapist, aides… dibels.uoregon.edu

DIBELS Reports

Grade Level Performance & Distribution dibels.uoregon.edu

Grade Level Progress Report dibels.uoregon.edu

Classroom Instructional / Grouping Recommendations dibels.uoregon.edu

Instructional Recommendations Benchmark = Core curriculum Strategic = Classroom-based intervention Intensive = Daily intensive in-class and/or out of class instructional support dibels.uoregon.edu

Progress Monitoring Assessments Benchmark = “No risk” = BM 3x/year Strategic = “Some risk” = PM 1x/month (1 min) Intensive = “Risk” = PM 1x/week (1 min) dibels.uoregon.edu

Questions ??? dibels.uoregon.edu